(Photo left, the sliced gherkins mixed with seasning has been heated for 5 min’ in a Microwave —– when it’s cooled down, keep in a jar in a fridge = ready to eat.)

Instead to have a Cooky or Chocolate kind, I often make and keep some boiled vegetable for a small snack. But when its run-out, —– Isn’t there something a bit more convenient to pick ? For western people, it might be a Marmite on cracker or piece of bread = and, you may say “Japanese can do it with Miso (Soybean paste) on Cracker” —- M m m ? Sound dreadful = I don’t think so. = So, what Japanese would pick ? — Rice Cracker (O-senbei) ?

Then gave a thought “What is THE easiest pick to eat with boiled rice ? ” —– may be for a Japanese, it would be a Tsukudani or Tsukemono kind which we can regularly keep in a fridge. (There are hundred kind of Tsukudani in Japan = cooked small sea food, sea weed, vegetable, even a long boiled larvae of Hornet wasp or Grasshopper etc etc) (I found some of those in a Japanese food shop but sold in an extortionate price in small plastic package or in a jar.) So, I got an idea, why not make it myself ?—– Make it but as usual, with a cheated quickest way.

One of the easiest approach is, to use the readily available pickled gherkin.(There is or was a packed pickles / Tsukudani called Kyuri no Kyu-chan = cooked cucumber and one of the easiest accompaniment for the boiled rice.)

In order to make Kyu-chan like cooking, pickled gherkin was thinly sliced and excess juice were squeezed out. Then, Dashi-no-moto (mostly powdered fish), soy-source, a squeeze of wasabi paste, a bit of Mirin (Japanese cooking spirits — in stead, sherry or rum can be used) and a bit of sugar then all of them should well be mixed —– in this stage, if you like crunchy bite, this is the all, — but if you like well infused taste, with a bit soft cucumber, you can micro-wave them (Mid~High 5 min’) then put them into a jar (kept in a fridge, I found no problem for 2 weeks) = ready to eat any time — also good on a bread. いただきます。 Bon appetite ! 🙂

PS : What I found in this extremely minimalist cooking was that because there wasn’t any complication of taste, we can taste the taste of the rice itself. —– strangely, we can’t just taste the rice, because the mouth just fed-up. 😀